Looking back I think I was always interested in photography
without doing very much about it. Before WW11 my Grandfather used to process his
own prints at home in a large dark cupboard in one of the bedrooms. However by
the 1950’s it was full of junk and photography did not seem to be on the agenda.
However my interest in this dark cupboard and photography had been ignited.

In the late 1950’s a very early episode of Blue Peter showed
how to construct a Pin-hole camera. I spent a number of hours painstakingly
building this camera. I was delighted with the final result and the following
week Blue Peter were going to show us how to use it with film and processing
chemicals. Then disaster struck………I missed the next episode and the camera
lived, unused, on a shelf in my bedroom until I moved out 10 years later when I
got married.

In the early 1970’s, whilst living at Stocksfield, I made a
second attempt to become a photographer by borrowing a number of books from my
local library. I’m sad to say they were not a wise choice being full of
technical data and graphs. I struggled with them for a week or so then thinking
photography was not for me I took up golf.

In 1976 I moved back to Hexham and joined Hexham & District
Photographic Society. On my second night I was very fortunate to see Dr Mike
Constable ARPS, without doubt one of the most creative photographers of his
generation. Before I saw him I thought photographs were a record of a time or
place or a family event. He introduced me to the world of creative photography.
Within a week I’d set up a darkroom and was printing B/W and colour negatives
and creating composite transparencies. All very badly but I had started on the
path of studying photography.

Printing became a real passion and studying photography a
lifelong quest.

Although I would class myself as, primarily, a Travel
photographer I photograph anything and everything. I enjoy photographing people
and places, landscape, nature….in fact anything in front of my camera. A lot of
my work is “straight” photography, if indeed anything can be described as
straight but I do enjoy producing abstract or altered images. At one time this
type of image would be achieved through table top techniques such as back
projection, multi exposures through masks or darkroom techniques. The advent of
digital imaging has made things so much easier. In my opinion digital imaging,
along with colour photography itself, is the most significant development in
photography in the last 100 years. I feel very privileged to be around to be
part of it.

My main “buzz” is the taking and making of pictures,
especially printing and passing on knowledge to others. I’ve acted as programme
organiser for Hexham PS for over 25 years and find it a very creative exercise.
Finding new lectures and creative ideas to involve club members in photography
gives me a lot of satisfaction.

For eight years in the 1980’s I carried out the role of NCPF (
Northern Counties Photographic Federation)
Competition Secretary. Through this activity I got to know a lot of people from
many clubs and handled thousands of prints.

I’m always working on photographic projects and find it an
excellent way of producing new work. In the early 1980’s I started entering
International exhibitions and have exhibited continuously since then. They have
provided me with the motivation to strive to capture new images with a
difference. My old friend and mentor Myles Audas once told me that if one of his
images was accepted in any exhibition he never entered it again. My approach is
a little more relaxed…..four acceptances and mine are “put to bed.”

Originality is the key to success in most things and
photography is no exception. My rules are to never copy and avoid the tripod
marks…….if it’s been done before then why bother?

Travel and photography, in my opinion, go hand in glove so in
the late 1970’s I started working on a project to capture the land, people and
culture of Greece. My efforts were rewarded in 1985 with a Fellowship of the
Royal Photographic Society.

In 1987 I joined the Photographic Society of America, in
September 2006 I was awarded a Fellowship of the Society.

Since the early 1980’s I have advised people on panel
submissions for RPS (Royal Photographic Society) distinctions and since the year
2000 acted as an assessor on firstly the Licentiateship and then the Travel
Associateship/Fellowship panels. In January 2008 I was elected Chair of the
Licentiateship panel. In January 2012 I accepted the position of Chair of the
Travel Associateship and Fellowship panel.

I have studied photography seriously for over 40 years and
digital imaging for 23 years and continue to do both. If ever I thought I had
“arrived” or reached any sort of “standard” I would pack in because what I would
have reached was a plateau and would then probably be incapable of learning new
things……I hope this never happens.

In September 2015 I was honoured to be awarded the Fenton
Medal and Honorary Life Membership of the Royal Photographic Society.
Established in 1980 and named after Roger Fenton, one of the Society's founding
members the Fenton Medal is awarded for outstanding contribution to the work of
the Society.

The pleasure I get from taking and making pictures,
especially printing, has if anything increased over the years, long may it
continue.